Policies In Society Research Articles

Motherhood penalty: The Brazilian peculiarity

In this study, we investigate the motherhood penalty in Brazil by tracking mothers in administrative databases from the years before to after the birth of the child. In particular, we analyze the wage trajectories using econometric models to estimate the counterfactuals if these women had not been mothers. In doing so, we have to take into account a Brazilian peculiarity: there is a government policy that allows mothers to opt for self-employment in order to spend more time with their children. After adapting our modeling to this specificity, the estimated wage losses of mothers are around 25% and 10% when the children are of infant and school age, respectively. The message in terms of social impact is that it is necessary to help mothers to return to the labor market after childbirth under the same conditions and with the same opportunities for professional development as before pregnancy. We believe that this support can be provided, for example, through better childcare policies in society.

Foreign views on the culture of Soviet Kazakhstan: an analysis of historiography

The research conducted by American scholars focused on themes such as nationality, language, religion, politics, modernization, and cultural change. These scholars sought to understand the implementation of Sovietnational policies in a multi-ethnic society like Kazakhstan and the delicate balance between Soviet identityand ethnic identities within the union. Language reform and its impact on cultural and linguistic diversitywere also explored, along with the interaction between Islam and the secular ideology of the Soviet state. Theeffects of Soviet modernization programs on Kazakhstani society, including the disruption of traditional prac-tices and ways of life, were investigated. Moreover, the study examined how Soviet policies influenced cul-tural institutions, literary practices, and artistic expression, highlighting the tensions between conformity toSoviet norms and the preservation of a distinctive Kazakh cultural identity. The article acknowledges that thebroader global dynamics of the Cold War era influenced the interpretive frameworks and assumptions ofthese scholars. As part of an intellectual tradition shaped by Western liberal values, American scholars oftentook a critical stance toward the Soviet system. Their research emphasized the failures, problems, and resistance generated by Soviet policies, including state modernization, national policies, and language reforms.The article concludes that despite valuable contributions from scholars such as Wheeler, Allworth, and Con-nolly, a comprehensive examination of Kazakh culture during the Soviet period through the lens of foreignhistoriography remains lacking. It highlights the need for further research to deepen our understanding of themultifaceted aspects of Sovietera Kazakh culture, shedding light on the complexities and contradictions inherent in the Soviet project.

Evaluate the Correlation Between Identified Social Issues and Ultra-low Fertility Rates in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has witnessed a significant and continuous decline in its total fertility rate (TFR) over the past few decades, hitting an ultra-low level. This article investigates various social issues that would probably contribute to this decline as previous studies suggest, including the women’s role incongruence, the extremely heavy financial burden, and the limited scope of government policies in Hong Kong society. The persistence of such low TFR in societies would deteriorate aging problems, increase the old-age dependency ratio, and shrink the labor force. These issues are thereby posing significant challenges to Hong Kong’s economic and political sustainability. Hence, it is necessary for policymakers to introduce effective policies to improve TFR by figuring out where the problem derives. To comprehensively comprehend the correlation between ultra-low TFR and identified social issues, this research employs two statistical models which are multiple linear regression and decision tree analysis. The results reveal a strong correlation between low TFR and some identified social problems, while also elucidating the coefficient of each factor. Simultaneously, the findings contradict some previous hypotheses claimed by scholars.

Power of Pixels: Examining the Influence of Digital Tactics on Modern Elections and Political Campaigning

This essay tech's swing at selecting and crusades, with a aim on digital strategies and their impacts. It plunges into how developments in tech acquire changed the landscape of campaigning and explores the changing ways that politicians work applied sciences instruments to hit voters. The analyze additionally analyzes the likely outcomes of those strategies, adding issues about elector maneuvering and secrecy breaches. This essay aims to provide a comprehensive comprehension of the intersection between tech and policies in today's society through an informative method. It delves into digitals schemes slippery slopes and their outcomes, traveling from how advancements in computing have revolutionized the realm of campaigning to the potential perils of these tactics, like issues about manipulation of the voter base and violations of privacy defenses. The study also scrutinizes the changing ways politicians surf that ongoing digital sea to contact constituents. Through an knowledgeable technique, this essay goals to offer a complete understanding of the meeting between engineering and politics in today's international the place techniques waves continuously roll onto the shore, reworking strategies and concerns. It takes readers out on that digitally choppy sea and back along to analyze tech's effect on elections and campaigns drift whereas shielding against unintended riptides of misunderstanding.

Reasoning Around Wealth Decumulation Choices for Adults Aged 50 Years and Older: The Role of Family Values

AbstractStudies have shown that older people do not dissave and that they dissave slower than theoretically predicted. They also rarely use wealth decumulation products like annuities and reverse mortgages, despite the longevity insurance these provide. Most extant explanations characterized financial decumulation choices as rational, independent, and egocentric, overlooking the socioeconomic context and cultural values. The Confucian cultural heritage concerning family values may provide an alternative explanation and enrich the understanding of this phenomenon. Consequently, we explored how adults aged 50 years and older in Hong Kong reason about their financial decumulation choices, specifically with respect to four financial decumulation products: annuities, reverse mortgages, joint accounts, and wills. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data in this participatory qualitative study, conducted in partnership with older adults and law students. Sixty community-dwelling residents in Hong Kong ages 50–70 years participated in the study. The results show that wealth decumulation is largely influenced by relational and family values and is complicated by intersecting political, social, and cultural circumstances. The Confucianism-based, collectivist familism and filial piety underpinning Hong Kong society incline adults to adopt an attitude of self-restrain when making financial decumulation choices. Family morality values must be considered in the development of retirement products and retirement protection policies in contemporary Chinese society.

Contexts for integrating classical music in vulnerable educational environments

Intersectional intervention on educational policies in 21st century society is noted as a viable alternative in disadvantaged educational settings. In this direction, a well-reasoned educational policy facilitates access to education and knowledge for a significant number of students. The vision of each teacher, and in general of an educator, must be aimed at comprehensive educational policies, consistent with educational ideals and the agreed school curriculum, the skills of each educator being evident in the way they can adapt and apply classical or modern educational strategies or concepts, capable of producing much needed change in the evolution and school performance of the beneficiaries of this social service. The involvement of music education in the formation of the modern pupil's personality can be the foundation on which to build an equitable and inclusive education system, providing pupils with valuable opportunities to develop cognitive, social and emotional skills.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration and the Change Mantra in Nigeria

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy is credited with an abundance of natural and human resource endowments placing it potentially, among resource-rich nations and raising hopes of its development potentials. Contrary to this potentiality, the country remains underdeveloped with a large portion of the population living below all indices of human development. Democracy offers hope for pragmatic changes to leadership and government policies in society’s quest for change and stability. It was on this basis that numerous disenchanted Nigerians embraced the prospect of ‘change’ put forward as campaign slogan by Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress against the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party in the run-ups to the 2015 elections. Consequently, Mr. Buhari was sworn in as President on the back of his change mantra, on the 29th of May 2015 with his party remarkably defeating an incumbent president. The party was re–elected for another four years in 2019 arguably aided by factors of incumbency and some remnant of civil optimism. After the expiration of his eight year tenure, there are questions on the performance of the Buhari administration that need exploration, viz-a-viz performance to voters’ expectations; the party’s delivery relative to party manifesto; and public disposition to, and perception of standard of living under the administration. Eight years after this government, were they able to introduce the much needed change? How far did they go in fulfilling some of their laudable promises as contained in their manifesto? Did they live up to the expectations of the citizens? This paper seeks to answer these questions through evaluation of the major promises made to the citizens by the ‘Change Mantra’ government. The social contract theory was employed. The paper relies on secondary means of data collection and is analyzed using descriptive analysis and narrative report. The study concludes that the Government did not live up to the citizen’s expectations and most of their promises were never accomplished. The study recommends that corrupt politicians should be jailed to serve as a deterrent to others. Our political culture should be changed; citizens should begin to demand for dividends of democracy from their elected representatives

Optimal policies in an ageing society

We analyze optimal social security in an overlapping generations model with demographic change and endogenous retirement. Households choose to spend the second period of their lives in full retirement if the tax rate on labor income exceeds a threshold. This threshold is increasing in life expectancy and decreasing in the fertility rate, which implies that both types of demographic change increase the relevance of the partial retirement case: both an increase in life expectancy and a drop in fertility imply that retirement is delayed. We also show that when the government decides about retirement, the command optimum can be replicated through social security policies if the laissez-faire equilibrium features capital overaccumulation. When households decide about their retirement themselves, however, replication of the command optimum is not possible. In both cases, it is optimal to expand social security when longevity increases and to reduce it when fertility drops.

Technology philosophies, politics and policies in society: Technology in Society Briefing

Technology philosophies, politics and policies in society: Technology in Society Briefing

Communication of Results of Educational Policies: Impact Levels of Educational Policies in the Digital Society

The levels of adherence to results in the implementation of public policies within educational communities can vary greatly depending on several factors: program coverage, funding level, the level of understanding of program goals, the duration of implementation, and the dissemination of results. In today’s digital society, the most relevant factor is precisely the communication of results, even when the way in which these are reached is overlooked. As a result, non-causal, high-impact relationships are installed in the collective consciousness. This article presents the results of a study that aims to measure the level of impact of the implementation of a public policy developed over two years in educational establishments in the Los Ríos Region of Chile, and it looks into the level of adherence to results three years after its implementation. The results explain that the differentiating factor is the type of dissemination of results, in direct correlation to the digital media used and the digital culture of the establishment, which allows to previously project the conditions of possibility for a type of adherence, even though we need larger scale measurements to determine with certainty this point of causality.

The good, the bad, and the why: How do Arabic-speaking migrant men perceive and experience information and services related to sexual and reproductive health in Sweden?

Although migrant men constitute a large and growing proportion of men in Sweden, literature exploring migrant men's experiences in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services is scarce. We aimed to explore how Arabic-speaking migrant men perceive and experience information and services related to SRH in Sweden. We conducted 13 semi-structured interviews with Arabic-speaking migrant men and analysed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. We developed four themes: 1) SRH is ‘something essential in life’; 2) the good: a transition to a ‘new open society’; 3) the bad: barriers to sexual education and health services; and 4) the why: blaming oneself or the system. SRH services and sexual education/information were perceived as needs and rights, and the participants were content with the new possibilities and the ‘new open society’. However, sexual education was not provided to most migrants, and SRH services provided to men had shortcomings that deprived some migrant men from fulfilling their needs. Moreover, internalised and cultural racism created a challenge to receive adequate/acceptable SRH services. There is a need to provide comprehensive sexual education for all, strengthen SRH services provided to men, and develop an action plan to reinforce the anti-discrimination/racism policies in healthcare and society.

The Racial Pandemic: Positive Behavior Intervention Support as an Asymptomatic Carrier of Racism

In an attempt to close the discipline gap, school systems have replaced traditional exclusionary practices with alternative interventions such as Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS). PBIS, as an alternative to exclusionary discipline practices, does little to help historically oppressed youth, specifically, because it denies the presence and value of race. This attempt to be race-neutral results in racist discipline outcomes. PBIS presents harmful outcomes for early childhood and elementary-aged children, as it normalizes children to the disciplinary structures that result in high school dropouts and other negative outcomes for older youth. Exploring this program aids in understanding the limitations of color-evasive policies in education and society at large. In this article, the authors explore failings of PBIS and argue for the adoption of color-conscious approaches that engage in co-construction of pedagogy, curriculum, accountability norms, and expectations (Milner et al., 2018).

Applicability of human rights in social policies: what do you know about human rights? Critical dialogue with social work students in Seville (Spain)

ABSTRACT This work presents some of the findings from a Teacher Innovation Project undertaken by faculty members at Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville (Spain), entitled ‘Humanising the policies and (re) creating the applicability of rights.’ The purpose of this project was to promote Social Work students’ learning about the praxis of human rights from a critical perspective and the applicability of social policies in society. For the final product of the project, we collected narratives through the use of techniques such as group discussion and interviews with professionals and excluded groups, to create videos that presented an approach to basic concepts and the opinions of teachers and students. Once the project ended, we continued the investigation in order to evaluate the impact of the lessons using the material we created. We developed a questionnaire to find out the perceptions of the next year’s students on subjects related to the initial project.

Multinational oil corporations, policy violation and environmental damage in rivers state of Nigeria: a theistic ethics approach

Achieving a sustainable environment is not unconnected with a pragmatic adherence to environmental policies in any given society. The continuous and expanding experience of environmental degradation and its attendant consequences on human and other lives in Rivers State of Nigeria still call for urgent attention for enduring solution. Yet, it seems that all efforts made toward resolving the problem have yielded very few positive results because the root cause of the problem(s) has not been given adequate attention. This study explored the organic connectedness between breaches (i.e., policy violation) of environmental regulations (as a major cause of the problem) and environmental chaos (as the consequence of the breach) in Rivers State of Nigeria, from the theistic ethics standpoint. To investigate the actuality of the connectedness of the breaches and the incessant environmental decadence in the study location, 30 copies of self-constructed, close-ended questionnaire were administered to a purposively selected sample of 30 Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) of the major oil business firms across the entire three Senatorial Districts of Rivers State. Out of the 30 administered questionnaire, 26 valid copies (86.7%) were retrieved and analysed, using frequencies, simple percentage counts, and regression analysis. A total of 88.5% of the CLOs confirmed that breaches in fundamental environmental policies were major causes of the environmental chaos and other associated problems in Rivers State, Nigeria. Also, pipeline vandalism, oil spillages, and oil theft typified breaches of theistic and other environmental regulations with ecological consequences. The F-test from the regression analysis shows that the value of F-calculated (6.633) is greater than F-tabulated (3.86) taking cognizant of the P-value of 0.01, which is lesser than 0.05 level of probability. This confirmed a significant relationship between contravention of law and ethical principles, and environmental degradation in Rivers State. Furthermore, the value of coefficient of correlation (r) is 0.126. This confirmed a positive relationship between violation of environmental policies (X) and environmental degradation (Y) in Rivers State. The paper concluded that adherence to the theistic and other environmental policies by oil firms in Rivers State could serve as respite to the environment.

5.N. Round table: Cross country COVID-19 policy learning: politics, arrangements and conditions for legitimate policy

Across many countries public health experts question to what extent are COVID-19 policies ‘evidence-based', driven by uncertainties and precautionary principle, and narrow disciplinary focus. The policy reflex in 2020 led to a State of Emergency in about half of the countries in the WHO Europe region and managing by decree without Parliamentary approval. Policy decision-making in many countries is persistently dominated by virologist medical expertise. Pandemic response organized by hierarchical, partisan or technical dominance has led to an overly dominant policy focus on curative services and disproportionate effects on vulnerable and minority groups. Now, after 1,5 years and even during electoral campaigns in many countries, the public lacks interest representation because of ‘Parliamentary paralysis': It has been suggested mainstream political parties do not want to question response policies for being associated with populist radical right, antivax and conspiracy theorists.However, policy mitigating and politically moderating options are available. Avoiding public litigation or electoral repercussions, rapid policy response can benefit from organizing quick consultations, rapid appraisals and fast feedback assessments. This will contribute substantially to the use, feasibility and acceptability of policies in society. Consequently, this may facilitate the actual implementation, organizational compliance and public adherence to regulations.In this workshop we aim to explore the needs, capacities and lessons learned so far by health policymakers themselves in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, and draw implications for the public health community of scholars, professionals in support of policymaking. Rather than asking to what extent the policy responses have been evidence-based, we take the policymaker perspective and focus on the rapid exchanges and emerging processes of policy learning across different countries. There is evidence of policy learning across countries, but not so directly related to research evidence - how does learning take shape? Are public health experts and scientist trained to induce such learning?Three short presentations will share direct experiences with rapid pandemic response decision-making. A panel with politicians involved in pandemic decision-making will reflect on needs, capacities and conditions for well-informed and balanced pandemic response. Then the floor is opened for debate with the audience using Mentimeter and other facilities available for online interaction. The workshop ends with concrete recommendations for direct policy support by public health researchers, managers and professionals at regional, national and supranational levels.Key messages The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the vulnerabilities in political and democratic systems under stress for decision-making with huge increases of socio-economic and health inequalities as a result.Learning from policymakers themselves will benefit the capacities of public health research and services to organise quick policy feedback preventing huge public health costs in the long run.

Superdiversity and social policies in a complex society: Social challenges in the 21st century

Superdiversity is a characteristic of contemporary societies that affects processes of social change and social policies. Using meta-analytical methods, this article reviews how superdiversity is addressed in the literature to better inform social policies from a sociological perspective. A search of the literature in English and Spanish revealed 76 articles using different methodological approaches over the period 2007–2019. The descriptors for the search were superdiversity, cultural diversity, migratory flows, global migration, population change, social interactions, social change, social complexity, social care, social policy, superdiverse contexts, age, gender and migrants/ superdiversidad, diversidad cultural, flujos migratorios, migración global, cambio de población, interacciones sociales, cambio social, complejidad social, cuidados, política social, contextos superdiversos, edad, género and migrantes. The main results are the identification of key aspects to inform social policies and promote sustainable social change consonant with the current social reality.

CONTRADIÇÕES E LIMITES DAS POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS DE EDUCAÇÃO INCLUSIVA NO BRASIL

Este artigo objetiva refletir sobre o progresso, as contradições e os limites das políticas de educação inclusiva em uma sociedade capitalista, utilizando o referencial teórico da Escola de Frankfurt. A principal contradição refletida se refere à defesa da educação inclusiva em uma sociedade que se vale da exclusão como ameaça a todos os que estiverem fora da ordem: como a estrutura social permanece inalterada, a educação inclusiva tanto busca romper a exclusão em uma sociedade que incentiva a competição e desvaloriza os perdedores, quanto pode potencializá-la, uma vez que o pertencimento ocorre por meio da subsunção às condições estruturais previamente impostas. Conclui-se que as políticas e práticas da educação inclusiva são fundamentais na luta por uma sociedade justa e igualitária; não obstante, assim como para a educação escolar em geral, seus limites devem ser conhecidos para que possam ser pensadas as condições que os determinam, com o propósito de serem superados.

Artificial Intelligence and a Microperspective of Organizational Corruption

Building on previous research on the collaborative root of corruption, we propose and conclude that people cheat more when they collaborate with another person in comparison with an artificial intelligence (AI) robot. We suggest that people infer that a human collaborator would cheat more than an AI collaborator when working together. Having drawn this ethical inference about a collaborator’s behavior, people are more likely to cheat subsequently in human-human collaboration than in human-AI collaboration. Therefore, the ethical inference about a collaborator’s behavior is the reason why people are more inclined to cheat in human-human collaboration than human-AI collaboration. We tested our theory in two lab experiments. Additionally, in two online experiments, we showed our findings were counterintuitive with regard to the common belief of laypeople. Managers are unaware of the positive effect of human-AI collaboration on reducing cheating behavior in organizations. Our research contributes to the microperspective of organizational corruption and has implications for anticorruption and compliance policies in organizations and society as a whole.

“The Soft Power” of European Universities: Gender and Sexuality Policies

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problematization and conceptualization of influence, as well as the potential for participation of higher education institutions, as educational and scientific centers, in the formation and implementation of gender and sexual policies in modern European countries, which are widely debated and ambiguously perceived in society. Methods. The article conceptualizes the concepts of gender and sexual policy in two senses: as a sphere of the struggle for power, as well as a system of technologies and actions in solving socially important problems. As a theoretical and methodological framework, the principles of social constructionism are used in interpreting the content, meaning and research of technologies for the formation of public representations and culture on issues of intimate and inter-sexual relations. Based on the use of general scientific methods and the heuristic potential of the Overton window concept, a scheme is proposed for explaining and studying the participation of universities in the “promotion” of relevant policies and politics. Results. The heuristic potential of the concept of “Overton’s Window” to the political science problematization, interpretation and explanation of the “soft power” potential of modern universities in shaping, discussing the social and political agenda on sexual and gender culture in Europe is revealed. It is shown that sexual and gender policies in society can be aimed at changing the values, perceptions and norms of the organization of interactions in the relevant areas of life, both at the level of individual practices and social institutions. Social and communicative technologies (informed discussion, events, creation of terms, name-calling) that are (un)intentionally used in the framework of higher education institutions to normalize and politicize ideas, perceptions and values regarding gender issues, the organization of sexual life can be interpreted as important tools for transforming unthinkable practices and beliefs into the category of not only acceptable, eligible on the existence of a pluralism of views, but also dominant in political discourse. Discussion. The issue of the ethical principles of the implementation of the “soft power” strategy by European universities, as well as the political and social sense and consequences of radical transformations in gender and sexual culture and the structure of society, present in the discourses of European academic science and education, remains open and poorly studied.

(Re)introducing critical realism as a paradigm to inform qualitative content analysis in causal educational research

This article contributes to the debate on the empirical applications of critical realism (CR) in school effectiveness research. Researchers that endorse this research paradigm privilege intensive, over extensive, research designs, focussing, hence, in ethnographic methods and qualitative interviewing. However, and despite some recent academic proposals, there is little guidance in the literature on how to analyse qualitative data using the lenses of CR to produce causal knowledge about the operation of education policies in society. The current piece elaborates on the tenets of dialectical CR to develop some methodological arguments on how to engage in this type of empirical work. These reflections are then applied to analyse qualitative information retrieved in three ‘failing’ schools from Northern Colombia as an exemplar.